Hopkins’ Center for Health Security Gets $16 Million for Research

Only a month after the Center for Health Security reintegrated itself into the Johns Hopkins University, the center is set to receive $16 million in funding for research on strengthening public health and security.

The school announced yesterday that the Open Philanthropy Project is giving the center a $16 million grant that will be spread out over three years. The money will be devoted to research about global biological risks — namely epidemics and pandemics – and how to respond to them, how technology affects those risks, improving national and international biological safety standards and awareness about biosecurity among policymakers, according to a release.

The Open Philanthropy Project gives money to organizations that conduct research and share their findings openly with the world so that others can build on them. It focuses on four areas: U.S. policy, global catastrophic risks, scientific research and global health and development.

The Open Philanthropy Project’s program officer for the catastrophic risks field, Jaime Yassif, said in a statement that they picked the Center for Health Security because both institutions’ goals appear to be aligned and the center “has an excellent track record of producing quality research, analysis and policy recommendations.”

The grant was announced just as the research center returns to Baltimore. Founded in 1998 at Hopkins, the Center for Health Security moved and re-affiliated itself with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2003. After a 13-year partnership with the medical school, the center uprooted and rejoined the Bloomberg School last month. (Its website still has “UPMC” in its URL, but never mind that.) The center’s director and CEO, Tom Inglesby, said in a statement that the move would expand its reach and let it “tap into the universe of great talent” at JHU.

The money would be a drop in the pot for the Bloomberg School as a whole thanks to its namesake, who has donated more than $1 billion to the school from his philanthropy chest. But for the Center for Health Security, it holds particular significance.

“This grant will have a transformative impact on our work and our ability to make a difference,” Inglesby said in a statement.

Ethan has been editing and reporting for Baltimore Fishbowl since fall of 2016. His previous stops include Fox 45, CQ Researcher and Connection Newspapers in Northern Virginia. His freelance writing has been featured in Baltimore City Paper, Leafly, DCist and BmoreArt, among other outlets. He enjoys basketball, humid Mid-Atlantic summers and story tips.